Today, let me introduce you to one of Tangent Artists Tabletop’s works in progress: COSTUME CLASH! 

Costume Clash is a family-friendly card game inspired by our favorite costume parties and masquerades. The Premise: each player is trying to win top prize at the costume contest, but couldn’t be bothered planning an outfit in advanced. Make the best outfit you can out of leftover parts, and make it fast!

Warrior Sneak Peek

BACKSTORY

Attempt 1 – A few years ago, I tried to make a “build your own monster” game, with the not-all-that-terrible name of “Genomonster.” Each card represented a body part, like a Wasp head or a Yeti arm. Players grabbed cards from the “Gene Pool” (terrible, I know), and built a monster that could have any number of arms and legs. After the monster was built, the players where actually supposed to fight each other with the monsters- I never got a chance to test the combat rules, but a quick glance at them today, I’d have to say they’re pretty terrible.

Attempt 2 – Once I joined Tangent Artists,  I had a chance to experience anime conventions first hand. This prompted a con themed game called Wrath of Con- it was another failed attempt, with the final rules resembling Munchkin with a grid.

Attempt 3 – I don’t know when it was, but the body-parts idea eventually merged with the convention atmosphere, into becoming a game of mismatched costume parts. (I’ve also done this first hand myself- I’ll share that in a future post.)  The first title was Cosplay Clash, but  we realized that the costumes could be nerdy without having to use a name that ONLY nerds would recognize. I made a prototype on index cards, which is included in this thread (I’d glad I’m not the final artist on the project.)

Prototype Cards

Close-up of the Prototype (Recognize the Zombie head?)

Digital Mock Up